Having discovered the potential breadth of the raw food diet, Linus, our founder and guiding chocolate Jedi-master, decided to explore just what was possible with raw cacao.

Inevitably there were a number of disasters before Linus found the path to true cacao wisdom, but with time, patience, and perseverance he slowly mastered the art. At which point he felt it was time to share his scrumptious creations with friends and family.

The response was overwhelming – the chocolate wasn’t just quite tasty, it was delicious, and people went wild for it.

Linus thought he might well be on to something.

That was when the serious experiments started: early starts, late finishes… Linus evolved into something of a mad scientist, but when he emerged from his chocolate laboratory he had the recipe for his chocolates and a shining glint in his eye.

That shining glint was what quickly became the Raw Chocolate Company. Founded in 2006, in a kitchen in Brighton, the Raw Chocolate Company now has numerous awards and is available across Europe and beyond! We now have our own purpose-built factory (our fourth in total), snug in the Sussex hills.

We have three product ranges: award winning Raw Chocolate Bars, Raw Chocolate Snacks and the Make Your Own range, which includes ingredients to make awesome smoothies, puddings, chocolate, shakes and more.

We don’t use any nasties in our chocolate, it’s all pure. Our Pitch Dark bar has just three ingredients: cacao, cacao butter and coconut sugar.

Our chocolate is:

Fairtrade

Vegan

Vegetarian

Soy-free

Gluten-free

Organic

Refined sugar-free

Additive free

Raw

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Unicorn friendly

We want to make chocolate that is as pure as possible. To that end, we do our best to source sun-dried and minimally heated cacao rather than roasted. Our cacao butter is cold pressed and our cacao powder is not chemically treated. We use coconut blossom sugar – rather than refined cane/beet sugar – with its extra nutrients and lower environmental impact. Overall, we’re trying to make a great tasting, luxurious chocolate treat, that makes you feel good, and is good for the growers and good for the environment too.

A few years ago, we were invited to pitch on Dragons’ Den. So off we popped to tame the dragons…they all loved it! In fact, Peter Jones said, “This is the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted in ten years of doing Dragons’ Den”. Deborah Meadon invested on the show, but after many, many, many meetings and discussions we decided to walk our separate paths.

We’ve won 6 Great Taste Gold Stars, been heralded as one of the most ‘disruptive’ companies in the UK (apparently this is a good thing) and have become a favourite of foodies, athletes, bloggers, vegans, chefs and chocoholics across Europe and beyond.

What’s next? We’re constantly working on new recipes and combinations and we’ll be releasing some later this year. We’re always looking for ideas and inspiration, so let us know if you discover something awesome!

We’re also looking to take the final steps to reducing our environmental impact – completely compostable and biodegradable packaging. This will be phased in over the next 24 months.